The Dodo Archive

Trusting Elephant Rushes To Save Human — Even Though He's Tricking Her

This video shows just how compassionate and intelligent elephants are - and how much they deserve our respect. This is Thongsri, an elephant who lives in captivity at a camp in Thailand.

She's clearly bonded with her human caretakers and cares deeply for them - despite the fact that she's in captivity, and even when they play a heartbreaking trick on her. When someone pretends to attack her caretaker, she rushes over to help.

It's very likely she was truly worried for him: Elephants are capable of complex emotional reactions and have been known to mourn their dead. They live in highly structured family units in which they care deeply for one another - which makes this a mean-spirited prank to pull on her.